Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes (Cnts) for Water and Wastewater Treatment: Preparation to Application
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sustainability Review Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) for Water and Wastewater Treatment: Preparation to Application Mian Muhammad-Ahson Aslam 1, Hsion-Wen Kuo 1,*, Walter Den 2,*, Muhammad Usman 3 , Muhammad Sultan 4,* and Hadeed Ashraf 4 1 Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tunghai University, No. 1727, Section 4, Taiwan Boulevard, Xitun District, Taichung City 407, Taiwan; [email protected] 2 Department of Science and Mathematics, Texas A&M University—San Antonio, One University Way, San Antonio, TX 78224, USA 3 Institute for Water Resources and Water Supply, Hamburg University of Technology, Am Schwarzenberg—Campus 3, 20173 Hamburg, Germany; [email protected] 4 Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] (H.-W.K.); [email protected] (W.D.); [email protected] (M.S.); Tel.: +886-(4)2359-0121 (ext. 3363) (H.-W.K.); +1-(210)784-2815 (W.D.); +92-333-610-8888 (M.S.) Abstract: As the world human population and industrialization keep growing, the water availability issue has forced scientists, engineers, and legislators of water supply industries to better manage Citation: Aslam, M.M.-A.; water resources. Pollutant removals from wastewaters are crucial to ensure qualities of available Kuo, H.-W.; Den, W.; Usman, M.; water resources (including natural water bodies or reclaimed waters). Diverse techniques have been Sultan, M.; Ashraf, H. Functionalized developed to deal with water quality concerns. Carbon based nanomaterials, especially carbon Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) for Water nanotubes (CNTs) with their high specific surface area and associated adsorption sites, have drawn and Wastewater Treatment: Preparation to Application. a special focus in environmental applications, especially water and wastewater treatment. This Sustainability 2021, 13, 5717. critical review summarizes recent developments and adsorption behaviors of CNTs used to remove https://doi.org/10.3390/ organics or heavy metal ions from contaminated waters via adsorption and inactivation of biological su13105717 species associated with CNTs. Foci include CNTs synthesis, purification, and surface modifications or functionalization, followed by their characterization methods and the effect of water chemistry Academic Editors: on adsorption capacities and removal mechanisms. Functionalized CNTs have been proven to be Muhammad Sultan, Yuguang Zhou, promising nanomaterials for the decontamination of waters due to their high adsorption capacity. Redmond R. Shamshiri and Aitazaz However, most of the functional CNT applications are limited to lab-scale experiments only. Feasibil- A. Farooque ity of their large-scale/industrial applications with cost-effective ways of synthesis and assessments of their toxicity with better simulating adsorption mechanisms still need to be studied. Received: 24 April 2021 Accepted: 10 May 2021 Keywords: carbon nanotubes; surface modification; heavy metals; adsorption; water and wastewa- Published: 19 May 2021 ter treatment Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- 1. Introduction iations. Rapid urbanization and industrialization has significantly increased the clean water demands in the domestic, industrial, and agricultural sectors [1–3]. Meanwhile, large quantities of pollutants including organic, inorganic, and biological contaminants are being released into the water bodies from these sectors [4–6]. Eccentric waters such Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. as brackish, storm, and wastewater are being used depending upon the purposes [7,8]. This article is an open access article Increasingly, use of these waters has also increased the urgent concern about the burden distributed under the terms and of negative impacts on the surrounding environment; one of the tremendous challenges conditions of the Creative Commons confronting mankind is the exploration of green and sustainable methods to overcome Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// these shortcomings [9–13]. Keeping in mind the current situation of water and wastewater creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ treatment status, the technologies are not sustainable to meet healthy requirements for 4.0/). surrounding environment and community health [14,15]. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5717. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105717 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021, 13, 5717 2 of 54 Historically, numerous techniques and methods have been investigated for advanced treatment of water and wastewater [16]. The most common, adsorption, was proven to be the improved technique to remove a variety of pollutants including organic and inorganic contaminants present in water and wastewater [17,18]. Limited treatment effi- ciency was reported by using conventional adsorbents due their small surface area, limited number of active sites, deficiency in selectivity, and low adsorption kinetics [19]. These shortcomings of conventional adsorbents have been addressed in recent advancements of nano-adsorbents owing to their high surface area coupled with a higher number of active sites, tunable pore size, fast kinetics, and improved surface chemistry [10,20–24]. The nanomaterials can be used for treatment of water and desalination as well and also reveal properties including electron affinity, mechanical strength, and flexibility during functionalization [25–27]. Carbon nanomaterials (CNs) such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are supposed to be a promising material to break down the tradeoff concerning selectivity and adsorption, resulting in an increase of the economics of adsorption technology [25]. As a result, CNTs, as an adsorbent for treatment of water, have attained the focus of countless scholars over the previous few decades who are projected to carry on the exploration and developments in the field of CNs [28]. Numerous significant articles have been published on nanomaterials applied for the treatment of water and wastewater in previous few years [29–37]. Despite rapid developments, innovations, and applications of CNT-based nanomaterials, there is an increasing need for an across-the-board review of the synthesis of CNTs, functionalization of surface modifications, and finally their application to remove aqueous contaminants and to identify potential directions. This is the main motivation of the current review article. This review attempts to address a brief history of CNTs, synthesis, purification, and functionalization, followed by the application of these nanomaterials for eliminating or- ganics, inorganics, and microorganisms present in water and wastewater samples. 1.1. Historical Background The discovery of CNTs was reviewed in 2006 by Monthioux and Kuznetsov, showing that the science has seemed to remain controversial [38]. Most literature mentions that nan- otubes were discovered by Sumio Iijima [38]. However, Radushkevich and Lukyanovich explained the synthesis process of CNTs with 50 nm diameter [39]. Oberlin et al. explained the vapor phase growth technique for the synthesis of carbon fibers; the synthesized tubes consisted of turbostratic stacks of carbon layers (i.e., describing a crystal structure in which basal planes have slipped out of alignment) [40]. In addition, Abrahamson et al. [41] described the arc discharge method for carbon fiber synthesis using carbon anodes. Later on, scientists described the thermal catalytic disproportionation of CO for the synthesis of CNs. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD) were used to characterize the synthesized CNs, and as a result they believed that CNTs can be formed by a graphene layer turning into a tubular shape. They also concluded that two types of promising arrangements, such as a helix-shaped spiral and circular arrangements in the form of a graphene hexagonal network, can result by turning the graphene layer into a tabular shape [42]. Later, a US patent was issued in 1987 on carbon nanofibers synthesis, the diameter ranging from 3.5 to 70 nm and five times greater in length than the diameter [43]. Back to the dates in 1950s, after the disclosure of CNTs by Iijima, projection of sur- prising properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) made by Dunlap and colleagues also attracted the attention of researchers around the world. At this time, after the discoveries and exploration of SWCNTs by Bethune and Iijima independently at IBM (Shiba, Minato) and Nippon Electric Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), respectively, the research on CNs and their specific methods of production was extended [44,45]. The above findings seem to be the extension of Fullerence’s discovery. Arc discharge technology had previously been applied for the production of laboratory-scale Buckminster Sustainability 2021, 13, 5717 3 of 54 fullerenes [46,47]. CNTs are being studied after the report published in 1991 by Iijima [45] was fundamental, because it put CNTs in the limelight [38]. 1.2. Types of CNTs and Structure CNTs are composed of carbon atoms organized in a progression of fused benzene rings, which are pleated into a cylindrical shape. This new sort of man-made nano-material has a place with fullerene family and is treated as carbon’s third allotrope as well as sp2 and sp3 forms of graphite and diamond, respectively [42,48,49]. Generally, there are two types of CNTs [50] on the bases of number of layers shown in Figure1: 1. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) 2. Multi-walled